RIM investigates reports about BlackBerry service

By RIMA AL-MUKHTAR | ARAB NEWS

JEDDAH: Canadian wireless device manufacturer Research in Motion, Ltd. (RIM) issued a statement to Arab News on Friday saying it is investigating reports in the local press that Saudi regulators have asked the company for access to its unique messaging service for its BlackBerry devices.

“RIM operates in more than 170 countries around the world and respects the regulatory requirements of governments,” said a company statement. “RIM is investigating the reported matter in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and will provide an update once further information is available to share.”

Local media print and television reports last week said the Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC) has asked RIM to allow the telecommunications regulator access to monitor messages sent by BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM.

BBM is a special messaging service for BlackBerry phone users. For a monthly flat fee, BlackBerry owners can share messages, IM and multimedia with other BlackBerry owners.

Messages have been widely disseminated among owners of the devices claiming the service would be shut down on Saturday.

The reports have raised concern among BlackBerry owners who claim they bought the device specifically for the messaging service.  The CITC was unavailable for comment on Friday.

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ATHIQ

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Good going... I fully support the decision of blocking BBM Service.

RASHEED ABOU-ALSAMH

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I hope RIM does not give CITC access to Blackberry messages. These communications are supposed to be confidential.

ABDULLAH BIN MOHAMMED AL QAHTANI

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why they keep always behave in funny way last time it was the camara on the mobiles when it first did come in the market they made big fuss about it and now the blackberry messenger??

but i got used to it by now everything new to the country they act strange agenst it.

EASTERN SPOTLIGHT

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The company that I work for bought for me a BlackBerry unit to use for the company emails. If CITC monitor messages, the confidentially of the business will suffer.

DR. KATHRYN CHANG BARKER

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It is beyond sad that Blackberry faces this challenge in KSA just when we at King Faisal University are about to conduct world-class research into the opporunities presented by mobile technologies for teaching and learning (mLearning). The benefits of improved and timely corporate communications at universities and in industry will be lost to KSA. The sole reason is greed - the telecom industry just wants more money from text messages. iPhone is like a showhorse. Blackberry is a work horse and that's what we need here to do the work of catching up with the outside world in higher education, entrepreneurialism, and eBusiness development.
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